About Me

When not nosing, tasting, drinking and reading about malt whisky, I own one of Israel's premiere boutique coaching practices, specializing in small businesses and executive teams.
Trained in the law, I was an international law attorney and took part in Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as representing my country at the UN for parts of the negotiations on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Later I was appointed to the military bench.
My favorite thing, other than whisky, is teaching.
You can contact me through the social media buttons above or by email: michael(at)maltandoak.com, replacing the (at) with an @.

Statement of Integrity and Guidelines

Malt and Oak is an independent whisky blog, offering my own views, opinions and news from the world of malt whisky.
These are my guidelines:

1. All whisky reviews published are of whiskies I have personally tasted and noted. Guest bloggers only write about their own personal tastings.

2. With the exception of official whisky samples, I accept no consideration whatsoever from any distillery, bottler, distributor, drink company or store for my opinions.

3. I maintain strict impartiality and objectivity in tasting all whiskies, not least when tasting official samples. Any review of official whisky samples sent to me will be so noted in the post.

4. I will accept invitations to tastings, events and official visits, and full disclosure will be made on any tasting notes and articles resulting from these events or visits.

5. Any sample received over 30 ml in volume is shared with fellow whisky bloggers. In any event, no sample larger than 100 ml will be accepted.

6. No advertisements promoting specific brands will be accepted.

7. I will answer any inquiry by my readers as quickly and as fully as possible.

8. Should I give a link purchase the reviewed whisky, it will be given free of any commercial interest. The link given will always point to cheapest selling price I found on the web. No commission is paid, nor any other consideration given, for such link.

9. As of July 2017, I serve as Douglas Laing’s Israel brand ambassasdor. As such, I will obviously not be posting reviews of Douglas Laing products.

Posts Tagged “Speyside”

Aberlour have basically doubled the price on one of our malthead staple expressions, the A’bunadh. Naturally, we’re looking for a replacement, and here pops up a new expression, that seems to be winking toward our demographic. It’s 48% ABV, non colored and non chill filtered. Our first thought is “Yay! this replaces the A’bunadh”. We…

Yes, the new GlenAllachie core range (or Foundation Range, as the distillery calls it) does start with a 10 year old, but it isn’t really the entry level expression for the range. Thus, I’ll begin my review of the range with the 12 year old, and move forward from there. We’ll start off with noting…

Signatory has several lines of products, and it seems like we have a new line appearing. Right now, the ‘Small Batch Edition’ appeared in a bottling for the German market. However, it says that it’s edition number one, suggesting a continuation. Unlike many independent bottlers, vatting a few casks together (OK, you can call them…

There’s a bunch of these 2007 Glenlivet sherry casks hitting the market now, and they’re selling out faster than fresh buns. Indeed, there’s an undeniable thirst in the market for sherry and peat, and distilleries are scrambling to fulfill that need. This is obviously easier with peat, and a little more challenging with sherry. From…

Balvenie’s travel retail range holds the 12, 16 and 25. This range is matured in refill ex bourbon, first fill ex bourbon casks and first fill Oloroso sherry casks. I reviewed the Balvenie 25 year old, and was not blown away, if I put it mildly, and found it somewhat strange. 2017 saw the coming…